Ode to Brutalism

[stefal]

(can this thread be moved to general architecture & urban planning? I went there first to find this)

Everson Museum Of Art - I.M. Pei (1968)

Burroughs-Wellcome, Cafeteria - Paul Rudolph

(didn't turn out as sexy as this drawing suggests)

Source

 

[dshoost88]

Bird’s Eye Brutalism

 

[Beton Brut]

Of interest.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Of interest.

Thanks for this. I've always loved mid-century modern, represented by this house and others in this vein from the 1940's thru 1960s.

 

[Blackbird]

1975 rendering of the Lahey Hospital's new campus out in Burlington... sharing not so much because the architecture is noteworthy but more for the mood that a black and white rendering of an institutional behemoth as filtered through a gritty, faded newspaper print can create. IMO it doesn't get much more big, bad brutalist seventies than this

From Burlington Retro

Why would you want a hospital of all things to look so menacing and uninviting?

Government buildings I can understand, but not this.

 

[Roxxma]

Why would you want a hospital of all things to look so menacing and uninviting?

Government buildings I can understand, but not this.

Maybe that's why it wasn't approved the first time it was brought up at Town Meeting in the early 70s (though a lot of opposition at the time was due to local support for Woburn's Choate Hospital and Winchester Hospital.. In the end, it didn't end up looking a whole like that. It was a just as bland, but turned out to be a somewhat symmetrical, less menacing building built into the hillside (a good change from many hospitals which are the result of add-ons and end up with very confusing floor plans. When it was expanded in the 90s, the extension built-the third segment, closest to 128 with the void underneath and signage- looked like it was built with the original two segment building). Burlington Retro, by the way, is one of the better local history sites I've seen.

 

[stefal]

BTW, the newly elected Mayor of Boston loves City Hall. Let her know if you want a tour...

I still think the plaza is the major offender and the building would be better complemented by a well-designed one, and I love Sasaki's work, but fear we won't see something that helps the building.